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Lot Essay
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, nicknamed 'Sandro', was born in 1866 to Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the youngest son of Emperor Nicholas I, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (née Princess Cecily of Baden). In 1894, Alexander married Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and sister of the future Emperor Nicholas II.
After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1885, Grand Duke Alexander embarked on a naval career and eventually rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral. In 1889, he completed a three-year voyage around the world on the armoured corvette 'Rinda'. The present cigarette case depicts the Rinda and is dated 1891, the year Grand Duke Alexander completed a voyage to India on his private yacht 'Tamara'.
The firm of Hahn, an official supplier to the Imperial Court, was also the supplier to the court of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.
A comparable gold cigarette case, attributed to Fabergé, from The India Early Minshall Collection is preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The cover of the case depicts a ship and the interior of the cover is inscribed in Russian, 'In Remembrance from Sandro Sevastopol 1886 6 May'. See the exhibition catalogue Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Russian Imperial Court, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1964, pp. 28-29, No. 67, illustrated.
After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1885, Grand Duke Alexander embarked on a naval career and eventually rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral. In 1889, he completed a three-year voyage around the world on the armoured corvette 'Rinda'. The present cigarette case depicts the Rinda and is dated 1891, the year Grand Duke Alexander completed a voyage to India on his private yacht 'Tamara'.
The firm of Hahn, an official supplier to the Imperial Court, was also the supplier to the court of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.
A comparable gold cigarette case, attributed to Fabergé, from The India Early Minshall Collection is preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The cover of the case depicts a ship and the interior of the cover is inscribed in Russian, 'In Remembrance from Sandro Sevastopol 1886 6 May'. See the exhibition catalogue Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Russian Imperial Court, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1964, pp. 28-29, No. 67, illustrated.